Worry
a little bit every day and in
a lifetime you will lose
a couple of
years. If something is wrong, fix it
if
you can. But train yourself not to
worry. Worry never fixes
anything.

Mary
Hemingway

Today's
Meditation:

I used to worry a lot. I still worry a little,
but I try to catch myself at it and stop it.
Worrying was doing me no good at all--it had no effect at
all on any situation, and it aggravated the heck out of
me. And what's worse, no one has ever sympathized
with me while I've been worrying. They always say
things like, "Worrying doesn't help
anything." But no sympathy.

Mary puts things in perspective very well, I think.
First of all, she helps us to realize that time spent
worrying is time wasted, and since we don't have all that
much time to enjoy this planet to begin with, why in the
world would we possibly want to waste a couple of years of
our time? And worrying definitely is wasted
time. Secondly, she reminds us that we should try to
fix things that are wrong, but if we can't, we can't, and
worrying won't change that fact.

We can train ourselves not to worry. The most
important thing to do is to train ourselves to recognize
when we are worrying, and to know what we're worrying
about, and stop it as soon as we realize we're doing
it. I may be out of money, but worrying provides no
income. My child may be out in a storm, but worrying
doesn't provide safe passage. I can prepare myself
to go out and look for her if need be, but worrying won't
make a bit of difference.

If we could banish worry from our lives, what lives they
would be! And here's the problem--we can banish
worry from our lives; we just don't learn how to do
so. But we can change that dynamic!

Questions to
consider:

What has worry ever accomplished in your life? How
did worry accomplish it (if there is anything)?

What are some strategies you can use to train yourself not
to worry?

Do you know anyone who doesn't worry? How do they do
it? What effects does the lack of worry have on
their lives?

For further
thought:

Do
you remember the things you were worrying about
a year ago? How did they work out? Didn't you
waste
a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them?
Didn't most of them turn out all right after all?

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